Poll positions: What to make of regional rankings

At the moment, Millsaps'
regional ranking might leave them on the outside looking in for a
Pool B bid. But as an unbeaten team, they'd certainly get an
at-large bid.
Millsaps athletics photo

So the regional rankings are out, and for the beginner and
advanced playoff-field watcher alike, there's information to be
gleaned.

Before we dig too deep, let's make sure we understand what we're
looking at. The regional rankings are compiled individually in each
region by an NCAA-appointed subcommittee of coaches, ADs and
conference commissioners. The subcommittee (regional advisory
committee) meets weekly by teleconference to discuss the rankings
long before Wednesday's first public release. Another set of
rankings comes next Wednesday and a third set, while not publicly
released, is used to help select the field after Week 11’s
games are in the books.

Each eight-member subcommitee has two members at the helm who
make up part of the eight-person national committee that selects
and seeds the playoff field of 32. That selection committee has a
set of primary and secondary criteria that it follows to ensure
that assembling of the field is based on more than just
opinion.

The other thing to keep in mind is that this first set of
rankings is highly fluid. Even though it's already Week 10 of an
11-week regular season, the final two Saturdays feature a number of
big games that could turn the rankings upside down. A sampling:

Week 10:

North Central at Wheaton
Heidelberg at John Carroll
Wittenberg at Wabash
Ithaca at Salisbury
St. Lawrence at Hobart
Concordia-Moorhead at St. Thomas
Pacific at Willamette

Week 11:

John Carroll at Mount Union
Linfield at Pacific
Bethel at St. John's
UW-Platteville at UW-Oshkosh
Millsaps at Rhodes
Cortland State at Ithaca
Alfred at St. John Fisher
Salve Regina at Endicott
Chicago at Wash. U.
St. Norbert at Lake Forest
Widener at Delaware Valley
Hampden-Sydney at Randolph-Macon

And one final thing to keep in mind. Twenty-four of the 32
playoff spots are automatic, meaning they go to champions of
conferences with seven or more members who have been in existence
for longer than two years. This is referred to as Pool A. So the
regional rankings, and the playoff selection committee, really only
puts eight teams into the field. These, however, are the eight most
hotly contested bids.

From this group, three Pool B teams (those from non-AQ
conferences SAA, SCAC, UAA, MASCAC and independents, eligible teams
in bold) and five Pool C (runners-up in AQ conferences) will be
selected.

In the East, Hobart and St. Lawrence face off, and Ithaca,
Alfred, St. John Fisher and Salisbury will beat up on each other
until there's one AQ team and none with a realistic Pool C shot
left.

In the North, Wittenberg and Wabash, John Carroll's two big
games, and Wheaton's game against North Central will change things.
Wheaton only stays in the picture if they beat North Central. North
Central would likely still win the CCIW AQ on points-differential
among h2h tiebreaker with IWU and Wheaton. If North Central wins as
expected, and Mount Union finishes unbeaten, the JCU/Heidelberg
loser is out.

In the South, Texas Lutheran, Wesley and Millsaps and Wash U.
would all be in Pool B -- these regional rankings were good news
for Wesley's thought-to-be-shot playoff hopes. W&J and Thomas
More won't be in the picture - one will win the AQ, the other won't
stack up in Pool C.

In the West, you have to consider Pacific and St. Thomas part of
the picture even though they aren't regionally ranked. Oshkosh or
Platteville will knock one another out.